Thursday, October 23, 2014

United Nations: ‘Turn The Water Back On In Detroit’

DETROIT (AP) — United Nations human rights
experts described Detroit’s mass water shut-offs as “a man-made perfect
storm” Monday and called on city officials to restore water to those
unable to pay, including those with disabilities or chronic illnesses.
Meanwhile, Detroit’s officials said the two lawyers’ actions and
conclusions were agenda-driven and not based on “facts” about the city’s
progress in helping residents keep or regain service.
Leilani Farha and Catarina de Albuquerque, who were in town to
observe the effect of water service shut-offs, said they affect the
poorest and most vulnerable — and particularly discriminate against
Detroit’s majority black population.
The representatives of the United Nations Human Rights Office of the
High Commissioner made the trip after activists appealed to the U.N. for
assistance. They visited residents who have lost water service or have
struggled to keep it, and they met with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and
water department officials for about two hours Monday morning.
The city, the nation’s largest municipality to file for bankruptcy,
said it made about 27,000 shut-offs between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30. Most
shut-offs were halted for several weeks during the summer to give
residents a chance to enter payment plans but they resumed and topped
5,100 in September.
The U.N. officials cited falling population, rising unemployment and a
utility passing on higher costs associated with an aging system. De
Albuquerque said she has seen shut-offs in other U.S. cities and
developed nations, but nothing like Detroit.
“Our conclusion is that you have here in Detroit a man-made perfect
storm,” de Albuquerque said. “The scale of the disconnections in the
city is unprecedented.”
The mayor’s top aide, Alexis Wiley, said the city is “very
disappointed” with the U.N. visit. She said Detroit is helping residents
by beefing up customer service, getting 33,000 people in payment plans —
up 15,000 since August — and logging a more than 50 percent drop in
residential calls for water assistance.

The nonprofit Greening of Detroit
estimated in 2013 that between 1,500 and 2,000 urban gardens were being
maintained within the city limits, like this one pictured. Here,
tomatoes are grown in the backyard of an abandoned house.

Photo by Florian Buettner/Laif/Redux

Detroit’s secret weapon against food insecurity

DETROIT – Since the 2008 financial collapse, food banks around the country have been slammed with record demand for emergency food services, brought on by historically elevated levels of food insecurity.
Detroit is an exception, but not because the city is better off
than most; instead, the main food bank here has been overwhelmed by
soaring levels of hunger for so long, it has no way of measuring rising
demand.
“A lot of the way our food distribution works is
dependent on what we get in versus what’s needed, because the amount of
need is always greater than the food that we have,” said Gerry Brisson,
president of Gleaners Community Food Bank.
Brisson’s food bank serves five Michigan counties, with a
combined population of about 4.2 million people, according to U.S.
Census Bureau. But Brisson estimates that Detroit, which by last count
had fewer than 700,000 residents, eats up about half of the food bank’s
supply.
“That’s probably a byproduct of poverty more than
any other thing,” said Brisson. In other words, although it could be
difficult to measure the exact level of hunger in Detroit, there is no
question that the troubled city has been wracked by food insecurity for a
long time. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as lack of access to “enough food for an active, healthy life.”

“Basically, we’re on the ground organizing”Kadiri Sennefer of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network

Rather than waiting for help that might never arrive, some locals
have been at work organizing their own response. Detroit may be one of
the hungrier cities in the United States, but in recent years it has
also become the country’s urban agriculture capital. The nonprofit
Greening of Detroit estimated in 2013 that between 1,500 and 2,000 urban gardens
were being maintained within the city limits. Some of these gardens are
there just for the purposes of beautification, but many of them exist
to feed people who would not otherwise have access to fresh produce.
Groups like the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN)
combine urban farming with community organizing. In the words of DBCFSN
compost manager and Detroit native Kadiri Sennefer, the food security
network works toward “uprooting racism, and planet justice.”
“Basically, we’re on the ground organizing,” he said during a panel
on Detroit’s food insecurity at the liberal conference Netroots Nation
earlier this month.
DBCFSN runs several farmers markets within the city limits and
operates D-Town Farm, where volunteers can farm the land in exchange for
produce or other goods.
The group also lobbies the city on food policy and worked to establish the Detroit Food Policy Council in
2008. Other large farms have stayed away from overt political
organizing, instead focusing mainly on agriculture and education.
But many of the city’s gardens – perhaps even the “vast majority,” according to Tepfirah
Rushden, who works with the group Greening of Detroit and also sat on
the Netroots panel – are so-called guerrilla gardens, farmed on land the
gardeners do not legally own.
Sennefer described guerrilla gardening as a “necessity,” given
the amount of un-utilized land in Detroit and the difficulty which
low-income communities tend to have in acquiring it for their own
purposes.
“It’s not like we’re striving to bypass the law,” he said
during the panel. “But at the same time, the way the system is set up,
we will never get anything done if we wait for someone to give us the OK
to do something.”
There’s still quite a bit of hunger in Detroit, and urban
agriculture alone probably won’t relieve it. So far, the produce coming
from the city’s urban gardens has done more to supplement other food
sources than replace them.
Gleaners Community Food Bank has even started its own community
garden, producing between 20,000 and 30,000 pounds of fresh produce per
year, but Brisson says he doesn’t expect those efforts to measurably
bring down hunger in Detroit.
“I see it as less about reducing demand for food and more about
systemtically getting people to think differently about the kinds of
food that are available and the kinds of food they want to eat,” he
said.
Researchers from Rutgers University, the Urban Agricultural
Network and the Southside Community Land Trust have found that urban
agriculture may help improve health outcomes, but thus far nobody has attempted to turn urban agriculture into the primary food source for a major U.S. city.
Yet it’s clear that urban agriculture hasn’t yet reached capacity. Around the country, other food banks are starting up community gardens of their own in
an attempt to get more fresh produce to needy families. If other cities
experience an economic collapse similar to Detroit’s, the nationwide
urban farming infrastructure may grow yet further.

Detroit Black Community Food Security Network

Co-op Grocery Store Community:

Engagement Coordinator

About DBCFSN

The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN)
is a non-profit 501c3 grassroots community organization that works to build
self-reliance, food security and justice in Detroit’s Black community by
influencing public policy, engaging in urban agriculture, promoting healthy
eating, encouraging cooperative buying and educating youth and adults about the
food system and how it impacts our lives.
For more information visit our website, www.detroitblackfoodsecurity.org.

DBCFSN is currently planning a full-service co-op grocery
store to be located in Detroit’s North End.

Summary

This is a part-time, contractual position that begins
February 3 and ends April 11, 2014. It
pays $19.61 per hour and contractor is expected to work 20 hours each
week. Contractor will be responsible
for:

·Planning and conducting eight community
engagement sessions for the co-op grocery store.

·Signing up co-op members and receiving member
equity payments.

·Creating a data base of community contacts
interested in the co-op.

·Sending bi-weekly updates to those in the co-op
data base.

·Speaking and distributing literature at meetings
of block clubs, community associations, faith-based institutions and other
community groups.

·Managing social media related to the co-op
grocery store.

·Responding to phone and electronic inquiries
about the co-op.

·Developing presentation and materials for
community meetings.

·Attending monthly meetings of the co-op advisory
committee.

·Compiling a final report on meetings held,
members enrolled, lessons learned and recommendations for moving forward.

Qualifications

Candidates for this position must: have experience with
community engagement; possess excellent verbal, written and computer communication
skills. Knowledge of food co-ops is a
plus.

Preference will be given to applicants who are residents of
Detroit’s North End.

To apply send a cover letter and resume to:

Malik Yakini, Executive Director

Detroit Black Community Food Security Network

3800 Puritan

Detroit, MI 48238

Or e-mail to myakini@aol.com.

Application materials must be received by 6:00 p.m., Friday,
January 24, 2014.

Have you heard about the new Co-Op Grocery store coming to the North End? Come dialogue with us Thursday January 9th, 2014 at 4pm at Bethel Towers' Community Room, 5203 Chrysler Drive.Dinner Provided!Hallie Clark216-224-3609

Friday, January 3, 2014

“I believe it is our privilege and duty to create
an urban agricultural training and demonstration site that directly
reflects our commitment to sustainability and that will serve as a model
for other programs throughout the country” - WILL ALLEN, FOUNDER AND CEO, GROWING POWER

The Vision:
Growing Power inspires communities to build sustainable food systems
that are equitable and ecologically sound, creating a just world, one
food-secure community at a time.

The Mission:
Growing Power, Inc. is a non-profit organization and land trust
supporting people from diverse backgrounds and the environment in which
they live by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality,
safe and affordable food. This mission is implemented by providing
hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach and technical
assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help
people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable
manner.

The Need:
Located on an historic site that hosts the last remaining farm and
greenhouse operation in the City of Milwaukee, Growing Power has become a
national leader in providing neighborhood-based sustainable
agricultural education. As the organization has grown, the need for
additional space to support production, classes, meetings, meal
preparation, offices, and on-site warehousing has grown exponentially.
The construction of a new training center and warehouse facility
represents the unique opportunity to meet growing program needs while
serving as a model of ecological sustainability.

“I see the decade of 2010 as potentially explosive for what Will Allen calls ‘The Good Food Revolution.’” - JERRY KAUFMAN, BOARD PRESIDENT, GROWING POWER